Explosive News recaps the war in Iran with an eye for Western audiences.
Last week’s poll on deployment indicators was divided across the options. It seems our mighty readership is equally distributed among being socially disconnected from members in active duty, assuming troops are expending their disposable income in places where there are poles, and doing the administrative or physical labor of preparing to be away for long stretches of time. My general sense is that many of us are struggling with the energetic strain of watching folks put their lives on the line over pure power play, which is also tied to an overall avoidance I’ve observed when it comes to troops versus civilians.
A friend and I were chatting about her desire to feel informed about news, while also feeling bombarded and wanting to evade it. I believe our collective awareness is so connected that the act of not looking isn’t going to allow for separation. Being off of social media or taking respites in nature can provide much needed space to recover our own feelings from the trough of sources telling us how we should feel, what we should be paying attention to. But no amount of disengagement will be a salve for the visibility of all the ways the world is hurting right now. A few of my teachers say this is a result of more light awakening us, that we are simply more aware in this timeline. Something that’s been nourishing for me is allowing my presence in community to send me the news I need to hear when I need it.
You’d be surprised how many people are bubbling over to tell you about something they heard, read about, or experienced, like the ock at the deli who used broken English and hand signals to describe the increase in groceries causing folks to walk out without buying anything, or fellow customers at the wine shop who come in announcing that a new spot just opened two blocks away. This is actually the origin of modern journalism—being in proximity and maintaining interest with a range of people long enough that you know what’s going on before it becomes a headline. Living in Brooklyn has taught me that if you talk to the people around you, then you rely less on an external figure coming in to dispatch goings-on.
During the pandy, I had to instruct a lot of people to stop sending me urls to distressing or inflammatory news material. Like a child with an open wound, people unconsciously wanted someone else to witness the atrocity they’d been confronted with. I started asking, “Why did you send me this?” then waiting for an answer. Often the reply was a frank, “I don’t know.” Some folks got offended when I asked them to no longer think of me as a person who needs troubling news updates texted to me first thing in the morning. I explained at the time that I subscribed to the sources I wanted to hear from, and that being in media, I’m also, you know, someone who makes the news.
I spoke with my friend about practices that have given me a more even footing to begin my day: leaving my phone in another room at bedtime, not checking social media or email until after I’ve had my AM routine, and generally only accessing news sites if I’m looking for specific details. These approaches aren’t for everyone, but I hope they can spark ideas for you or others in your mix might contend with the waves of data points being thrown in our direction day to day.
Obviously war is not funny. That said, Iran's hip-hop laced Lego animations trolling Donnie T. and the Jets (seemingly with boost support from Russia) have become absurd, surreal fodder for social media audiences who are increasingly disoriented by the lack of a plan, stated purpose, or congressional permission in the U.S. military presence in the region. But a real-time cartoon on a war in progress?
We’ve always seen a concurrent response to conflict, but this feels new. Tim O’Brien’s classic short story collection The Things They Carried or Danielle Evans’ collection Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self feature stories about characters enduring and enacting war. Anyone who’s experienced trauma knows there’s absurdity and humor you cannot explain to those who haven’t been in a similar position. But those stories and others like them emerged after years of conflict. We are getting our updates in real-time and the truncated version is kind of more helpful than the briefings from the State Department (not a high bar they’ve set).
In an interview with Channel 4 News, British-Iranian author Sanam Naraghi-Anderlini noted that American forces have already targeted petrochemical plants, 30 universities, and 600 schools, all war crimes. This is anything but unserious news, and yet these Lego videos have been dropping like summertime diss tracks. They've provided global audiences with a narrative context that troll the guy who thinks he is supreme leader of the U.S., while demonstrating Iran's posture of fearlessness and willingness to engage the world's biggest and richest military.
A few days ago, the New Yorker published an article detailing the origin of the videos: "in February of this year, [YouTube channel] Explosive News hit its stride with a new style of content: A.I.-generated animated propaganda against the U.S.’s war on Iran, done in the style of Lego movies, with world leaders caricatured as yellow bobbleheads and missiles as plastic bricks."
From a culture point of view, what brings a smirk to my face is the use of rap AI, an art form born of the Black American Music canon, as the conduit to "battle" in the Middle East theater. The raps are macabre and built for the handful of cyphers I am barely old enough to have witnessed:
"You're losing your mind and you're losing this war, face it...
Now you're blocking the photos so the world doesn't see
how bad little Iran fucked up your military.
POWER PLANT DAY! BRIDGE DAY!"
The animations are cute, as all Lego figurines are, and horrifying because of the violence and destruction the characters, cosplaying world leaders, depict. The messaging is effective, garnering millions of views, comments, and reposts, if only for the disbelief associated with a country so explicitly mocking their tormentor while undergoing devastating loss.
Everyone keeps saying these Persians ain't nothing to mess with, not too far from plenty of rap battle cries. But I am compelled to ask: Who is really being trolled here? Iranian government accounts have reposted this content, conveying support of the rhetoric. So what is to be made of the use of Black-centered art, one that has turned K-pop into a billion-dollar industry, and been adapted into Arabic, French, Japanese, and Spanish, pushed through an LLM to ridicule a mostly white administration obsessed with antagonizing Black folks?
The truth is that many Americans and many Black Americans specifically would like to see the U.S. dethroned as the world's go-to empire, and just be a country working to honor and care for its citizens and residents. Centuries of systemic oppression have forced generational double-consciousness and soul-searching on what patriotism can possibly mean within borders where people aren’t treated as human beings. I come from a legacy of people who have never truly, fully benefited from the promise of the Constitution.
There is something invigorating for those who interpret Iran's confidence as a challenge to the exact same beliefs and forces that incarcerate Black folks at inexplicable rates, openly encourage extra-judicial killings, and collect innocent beings in deplorable camps as if collecting Halloween candy or Labubus. It also helps that the Iranian government's attention to Black Americans' historic plight in the country we are constantly erased from, has painted a picture that understands citizenship (however fragile in legal definition) doesn't necessarily equate to alignment.
No one who’s watched Bourne, Bond, or Mission Impossible can claim too much offense. We’ve been consuming theatric, valorized interpretations of war our entire lives. This time it feels different, maybe because the “bad guy” is talking to straight to us and using language that resonates with the same folks who stream Kendrick Lamar, Lil Wayne, and Jay Z (which to be clear, is mostly white people). I want to hope that’s a good premise. But one thing you don’t have to experience to know is that binaries elude war in all its forms.